Sunday, December 19, 2010

If you click on the image (and then again with the magnifier), you'll see that I uploaded it large enough for a decent desktop background (it's a 1024x768 or whatever). It's been a good year for me and Bent Objects, so consider this a small kind of something in return. Thanks!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

This is an image that I've done before, and today I was working on a variation of it (an added character in the mix), but I ended up simply recreating the previous one but with a different mood. Which image is better I ask myself. The other is prettier maybe, but is so straightforward, I dunno. I like the way this seems more candid.

As I looked at the previous time I posted these characters (two years ago), I saw that I had 28 comments about it. Twenty-eight! There were many times that I'd get over 40 comments, not counting my own. It's interesting these days, I get as many visitors, but not as many comments, and I think that's due to a couple of things-

1. My presence on Facebook and Twitter has led to people giving feedback there.

2. I think after a while, a reader can only say "great work" or "love it" so many times. Pretty soon they just comment when they feel they have something to add to the conversation, or when they have something witty to say, and that takes more time than most of us have.

3. I don't usually follow up on comments here anyway (what a jerk!). Every once in a while I'll say a "Thanks all!", but although I read all the comments, replying takes energy which I don't have. Sort of rude? Probably. That's what I would think.

4. I don't ask questions or opinions of my visitors. Most times I'm not touching on some hot topic that we need to debate. That's just not what this blog is about, is it?
To those of you who like to comment- thank you, of course. To others who just like to pop in and see what I'm doing lately, that's cool too. I will keep making things for people to see either way.

edit- This isn't a request somehow for more comments! After rereading it, maybe it could come across that way, but I'm more than happy with however many I get. No pity-party for me, thanks! There are a few great blogs out there that I visit which sometimes don't get any, so I'm more than happy with how things are.

Monday, December 06, 2010

I'm lucky enough to have a small deal with American Greetings (the card company), and they were interested in a previous version of this image. In the previous version there were queens out dancing (although one was a Jack, that was supposed to be the funny part), but for card purposes they just wanted two queens showing in a vertical format. I've learned that in the card business, it's all about vertical formats! I guess they know what they're doing.

Friday, December 03, 2010

With the holiday's fast approaching, for those who may be buying techie gifts, this may be helpful- Uncle Mark's Gift Guide. It's great, and it's free.

One of the things Mark recommends is his favorite digital camera, the Canon Powershot (of which there are many models, all which are good). I also highly recommend them, and I actually shot the first half of my book with one!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

I absolutely love the English, but their food is another thing entirely. (confession, I wasn't thinking about the English people's eating of beans for breakfast when I was making this. More like America's eating of "Beans and Franks", but I usually title things last moment, so here we are).

Speaking of England, an email friend from there, P K Munroe sent me his new book "You Can Stick It" (click the link for another person's description). I happen to think he's a rather clever fellow on a couple of fronts, so I want to give him a plug here.

My review- A sticker book for adults, whose publishers state- "We do not sanction any use which would deface or damage private or public property. No matter how amusing that may be." Ha! Yeah, right. But don't worry, for those people who wouldn't want to deface public property etc., I would heartily recommend getting this book for the sheer fun of putting stickers on gifts to friends. It has subtle fake wine labels, a variety of stickers for book jackets ( "Winner of obscure prize", "Makes the film of the book look good"), DVD's ("Warning, may contain sluts"), CD's ("Difficult Second Album", "Contains Greatist Hit"), etc. Fun.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Friday, October 08, 2010

How many people send Halloween cards? If you do, Target has a couple of Bent Objects ones to choose from. My brother lives in L.A. and he saw the Peanut Zombie one, but all my Target had was a couple of the candy corn one.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Monday, September 06, 2010

I'm lucky enough to get a call every so often from the Endress+Hauser Corporation to make something out of their spare parts. They give me full creative license to make pieces that they can give as gifts to related corporations. Challenging? Yes. Fun? No doubt.

This time the parts fit together to form a robot dog who I named "Stay!" I bought a few small connecting pieces, but 95% of him is from a big pile 'o parts that they gave me.

I should give credit to a Twitter friend, Mike Farrington, for helping me to name him. Thanks Mike!

For those in the Cincinnati, Ohio area, I'll be giving presentations at the Miami University Voice of America Learning Center this coming Sunday, September 12. Lots of interesting things to see and music to hear from 12 until 4. I'm very happy to be a part of it all. It's not too awfully far from the IKEA store, so you can make a big day out of it if the mood strikes you. Follow the link for more details.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The idea for this image came to me as I was in Brazil last week. I even asked a couple of friends down there about their thoughts on it, and from what I understand Brazilians don't exactly enjoy being thought of when this subject comes up ( I was even told that their country isn't responsible for it's origins), but that if I created it, it would be enjoyed in that part of the world. So let's see, shall we?
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On another note, regular readers will remember a problem that I had over the weekend, which I ranted about, and now that post has been taken down. I took it down voluntarily after several back and forth email conversations with the "My Food Looks Funny.com" people. I can tell you that the problem has been taken care of very amicably, and much care will be taken with Bent Objects when it appears on their site in the future. All I can say is that from my personal experience of the last 2 days talking with them -- they were very pleasant and tried to make me happy.

I do wish to thank each and every one of you who helped to bring the problem to their attention. Friends of this blog are always on the lookout for Bent Objects best interests, which constantly surprises me, and (I know this will sound corny) gives me a bit of a warm feeling inside. Thank you.

Friday, August 06, 2010

I've never been before. I've been a few places, but never to South America, so I'm excited. An agency in Sao Paulo got in touch and asked if I would help bring some characters to life in several images, then come down and talk about my work and the experience of helping with this job (not a bad gig!).

I created the theme and characters for the opening animation, then photographed them in the form of individual images which they then did a fantastic job of animating. There is then a page showing the images that I created for them, as well as behind-the-scenes photos.

One of the special things about this was that I knew that the agency was going to be animating some of the things in the images to make them look more interesting in video form, but the spirit of my work was left intact. And the amount of work they were able to do in such a short time-frame is nothing less than incredible. Hat's off to the crew down there who worked on this.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Two and a half inches long, one inch and three-quarter inches high. Fimo-type clay.

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Also- Winner of the Contest-

Thanks to all you great people who sent photos of your celebrations in honor of SOSAD, Strangely Orange Snack Appreciation Day. They ranged from preschool parties to semi-non safe for work videos, and I enjoyed them all. That being said, the winner is Rachel Kassman who seemed to celebrate with the largest group (even though some might have been interns who were there possibly against their will), and they had the largest variety of snacks also. I sincerely hope the rest of you found that eating orange food is a reward in itself.

I'll post the wire sculpture of Rachel's choice, and which I will then send to Rachel, sometime in the near future. You can go here to see the winning celebration.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Hello all, I'll be updating this post throughout the day. It'll be about Strangely Orange Snack Appreciation Day and a shot I'm working on.

8:30 a.m. and I just got up. Already have several photos of people celebrating SOSAD emailed to me. People must have started celebrating at the stroke of midnight or something. Will now start making breakfast.

9:09 a.m. Making sweet potato pancakes. Wanted to make sweet potato waffles, but not into the whole whipping up egg whites so early in the day.

The batter looks pretty orange, the final product has just a hint of it.

Tasted good though.

While I was at the grocery yesterday, I had planned to just get a few bags of orange snacks, but as my cart began to be filled with more orange items, I decided to just go ahead and go all out stupid silly about it.

Lunch.

Gum.

3:30 p.m. Half a bowl of Giant Cheez-its.

4:30 p.m. Working on an image for the blog here. My daughter is working on her latch hook project and listening to a Harry Potter book on cd. We'll walk down to a local ice cream place soon for something orange.

A hat for tonight's image post. Mini-haberdasher, that's me.

Dinner.
Buffalo Chicken over stir-fried carrots (plus a few snap peas for the heck of it.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

One day a few years ago, I invented a holiday to celebrate strangely orange snack food, which I called S.O.S.A.D. (Strangely Orange Snack Appreciation Day). In order to take part, simply enjoy an orange snack food of some kind while meditating on the science that makes this color of food possible. What a wonderful time to be alive!

This year I've decided to have a little giveaway in honor of SOSAD. From what I've seen, maybe a couple hundred people (at the very most) have taken part in this holiday so far. It hasn't taken the world by storm the way I had hoped, so I've decided to try and bribe people with a chance to win something. To enter, just send a photo of you and at least one other person enjoying orange snacks to me, here, and I'll make a wire/object sculpture for you using a theme picked by you. I'll pick the winner later this week.

edit- I neglected to mention that June 21 is always the SOSAD date. I'll post the winner a few days later.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

... and after I finish the wine, I turn corks into people. (Yeah, some of these are beer corks. Cut me some slack).

I was asked a few years ago for a nativity scene, and I got to work on it today. Finished so far- Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus, a horse, and a cow. I have five months left to make wise men, angels, and shepherds.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

I'd like to remind everyone that June 21st is S.O.S.A.D.( Strangely Orange Snack Appreciation Day). It will be here soon, so stock up on your favorite orange food and beverages to share with those close to you.

You can even stop by the S.O.S.A.D. Facebook page if you feel like it.